Berbery Bush
Description The Berbery Bush, Bar Berry, Dead's Tongue or in kaisarian latin, "Berberis Insidious" meaning "evil barberry" is a family of tall fruit producing evergreen bushes now native to the postwar continental united states. Most are a dark green in color with rusty stems and erratic thorn growth about the branches with certain strains producing exotic blue, purple and white leaves and non symmetrical fruit, producing about 50-80 berries per bush in somewhat regularity every 10 months. Most live only to about twenty years but there are reports of Appalachian and channel island varieties growing for centuries without limits in height or withe because of perfect factors or FEV, weather these reports are true or if there is something more at work can not be confirmed at this time. Uses "...And it is said the four-fingers tribe were made lords of 6 Isles due to a Barry drought so powerful, it could cure even the most damning curse of sea scurvy, making their warriors invincible to posidens wraith." ''-Annals of the Legion IX, "Medicine and Magic"'' Bar Berry has been used for thousands of years as a secondary food source, its said to have been cultivated in the land of the shi in great numbers in the past for religious reasons and its use as a medicine for releaving sea sickness and migraines. Todays variants retain the near toxic acidic taste of there forebears making it more popular as a vinagar of sorts or to be fermented with other fruit as a mildly nausea inducing jam. Several tribes from mexico , canandaria , cascadia , appalachia , the old south and in new california used this plant as a foraging reasorce, making it one of the few ubiquitous things still existing in this world, like a death claw roar, or a nuka-cola advert. The leaves and berries of some strains have vibrant colors that can be purged of their strong smells by dozens of acid baths, and steaming giving way to matte blue, purple and white, yellow dyes that can then be incorporated into many products like ornate legion officer crests, tribal signifying war paints and californian flanal jackets. Dangers One of the biggest issues in cultivating berbery patches in large numbers is there natural symbiosis with stem rust. Stem rust is a destructive fungus that primarily effects cereal crops and was a cause of many historical famines across the old world, modern barbery plants have formed a mutually beneficial mutation allowing the two entities to grow non parasitically like in previous generations, with the mold protecting the plant from fallout and the plant providing some sugars to the mold. This relation ship is why some botanists believe that bar berries thrived post war even after factoring in a lowered fertility rate. While the rust can be useful for planters located away from civic centers, only interested in bar berry fruit, it is a major concern for communities that grow foods like razor grain, wilt barley, maize or brown rice due to the rust completely destroying any above surface stalks. In some areas a separate green house will be used or a daily striping of spores by a trained farmer or simply having the fruit kept out of the village proper until the grain harvest is over. In addition to that, many bar berry types have toxic thorns along the branches that can cause mild nausea and lack of awareness if skin or epidermal contact is achieved. The plant also has the strange characteristic to mimic yao-guai pheromones and being deadly poisonous to both cats and cattle like bramin or bighorners. Due to these myriad problems most californian and plains tribes ban them as nuisances and will burn any plant that grows with their territory. Funnily enough the legions strict drug laws do not apply to berbey wine or chew as it can be made into a purely herbal form like dakura drink or xander powder. Habitat The bar berry bush existed on every continent prewar, all 6 of them making its range from the snow capped tundra of cannandaria, to the dry sunny plateaus of death valley. The plant is very readily one of the post war worlds farthest reaching species. Category:Flora